This website was, for years, an advertising-free-zone.

That had to change so I could keep this site a free resource to anyone with an Internet connection and some curiousity. So yes, there are now ads on this site, but only for a very high quality, tough-as-nails, meat grinder sold by a company I respect immensely and whose customer service is without peer and for a pet food retail store in Virginia that I've pesonally shopped in and whose owner is one of the finest, most caring animal lovers I've had the privilege of meeting. I've also now included links for ordering non-meat supplies at iHerb because, well, when you use those, you get a $5 discount on your first order and I get credits I can use to help pay for the ingredients I use to make food for Wilson and Sidney-Beans.   

I refuse to have Google ads finance this site, so I can still use your help.  Don't get me wrong, I love Google too, but the idea of random ads popping up for "healthy natural dry food" on this site gives me hives.  I just can't do it.  I tried it for awhile years ago, but I literally laid awake at night thinking someone would visit this site looking for unbiased information on cat feeding and see an ad for one of the very brands and formulations that I know makes cats sick.  I had to stop. 

This website has been a labor of love (mostly). I was determined in 2003 to create a site that had the kind of one-stop information-shopping that I longed for when I first started getting my own education in feline nutrition and began making my own cat food. My success with the diet was so conspicuous and welcome that I wanted to shout it from the rooftops. But the Internet would work well too, I figured, and probably reach more people. Also, it would keep my neighbors from calling men in white suits to take me away for standing on my roof all the time yapping  about the mainstream pet food industry and the virtues of feeding cats like the carnivores that they are.

My goal is solely to help people to help their animals live healthier lives and to shed light on the folly of feeding dry cereal to carnivores. The greatest way you can repay me is to feed your cats well. And to make some noise with your vet about getting smart on feline nutrition from unbiased sources, rather than relying on the pet food industry to act as a proxy for something as important as nutritional decisionmaking in health care. If you do that? I'm more than compensated for the effort.

But if you want to do more than that?  Here's the deal.

In the spring of 2007, visits to this site grew astronomically as news of the massive pet food recall sparked fresh interest in the idea of making cat food. I was delighted. And overwhelmed with emails. My web hosting service notified me that I'd begun exceeding web traffic limits and the time to purchase more bandwidth was upon me. A few years later, I realized the site would benefit from having features such as embedded video, etc.  All that has been out of pocket and absolutely worth it.   But there is, realistically, a limit to how much I will spend out of pocket to keep this site up to date and paid for.

So? If you've found this site particularly helpful and want to help to financially support the maintenance of this website, you can make a contribution of any size through PayPal (just click on the button below).

If you do that? Wow! Thank you.

I thank you.  Wilson thanks you.  Sidney-Beans thanks you. My husband thanks you. 

Another small but very meaningful way to help is to order your supplies from iHerb. They have a nice little rewards program that's a win-win.  You get a $5 discount the first time you order if you use this link or just click on the green banner thingamajammer here.  Me? I accumulate credits over time that I can apply toward buying the ingredients I use when I make food for my cats. Your call, of course. You should get your supplies wherever makes sense.  But gosh, if you're ordering online anyway?  They have great prices and fast shipping. I used them before I even knew about this rewards program.  

Finally, since people ask me this question all the time, here are the names of a handful of my favorite charities and nonprofits where you might also choose to make a donation:

• Feline Outreach, a charitable organization formed to promote the routine and medical care of companion animals, particularly cats.

• Animal Allies, a Northern Virginia all-volunteer organization dedicated to the rescue of homeless and abandoned animals. Our beloved Sidney-Beans is from Animal Allies, so they have an extra special place in my heart.  

• TLC Adoptions, a magnificent all-volunteer West Coast cat rescue and adoption organization founded in 1991 that has placed over 3,000 cats and kittens into loving homes. They educate the need to spay and neuter and work extremely hard on 'street rescue' of injured and abandoned cats and kittens.

• So Others Might Eat (SOME), a community organization to help the poor and homeless population in Washington, DC

• Tibetan Children's Education Foundation, founded in 1995 and dedicated to the preservation of Tibetan culture by supporting Tibetan schools and school children-in-exile from their homeland. Use the link below to donate.  I'd love it if you did that.  

Thank you.